Lead I did...walking WAY ahead of Trevor without another word spoken
between us. I didn't care anymore. Does he have any IDEA what I'm
capable of? The amazing things that I can do? Even 'I' haven't learned
all the tricks yet, and it's getting stronger and stronger every minute
of the day. And he thinks he can come here a muscle me into doing what
what HE wants? FUCK him! It felt GOOD, being able to torture him! Seeing
into his mind, and exposing his fears and painful memories, twisting
them to use against him. It feels GOOD to be in control for a change!
All my life I've been abused, pushed, pulled, and bullied....it's
*MY* time now! YOU HEAR ME??? *MY* TIME!!! Everybody wants
something from you, they USE you to get what they want, they drain you
dry, and God forbid if you were to have the 'audacity' to fight back and
defend yourself. Then it's all like, 'Justin, how could you be
such an asshole?' Was I supposed to sit here and take all the
bullshit that people dish out when they're angry, or hurt, or selfish?
Just sit here and take whatever they give me, and wait for them to come
back and say they're sorry MUCH later so I can let them set me up to use
me again? No...those days are over. Long over. And if anybody thinks
they can make me implode with thoughts of guilt and sorrow for THEIR
wants and needs...if Trevor or anybody ELSE thinks they can push me
around, they're in for one HELL a rough time! The bank is closed as far
as Trevor's concerned. Threat, or no threat.

I crossed the city to our usual hot spot, and knocked on the back door
of the club to see if Bernie would let me in with as little fuss as
possible. Looking behind me, I saw that Trevor had drifted off from
tailing so close behind me. But deep down, I knew he wasn't far away.
He'd probably be keeping an extra close eye on me now that he knew I was
up to something. But like I said, fuck him. He can watch all he likes.
Tonight I'm free as a bird.

Bernie opened up the rusty iron door with his predictable frown and
deflated sigh, knowing it would be one of us youngsters coming in to
partake of the festivities inside. But what surprised me was that he
actually let me get away with a few whispered curse words and a dirty
look or two before letting me in. "Thanks, Bernie." I said, and squeezed
past his beer gut to get into the hallway leading to the club's jam
packed dancefloor. The music was pumping even harder than normal that
night, and when I opened the doors I saw a house that was literally
packed to capacity. Maybe even beyond. Everyone was jumping with a
thunderous boom on the dancefloor, which was blacklit specially for
tonight's occassion. The white shirts gleamed so brightly that it
appeared to dim the rest of the room. Even the glow sticks they were
holding and flailing about seemed to be lost the brilliance of the
radiant shirts, headbands, tattoos, and everything else that caught the
blacklight's rays. The dance floor was so full that you couldn't go near
it without getting sucked in and trapped there until the swarm of
dancers 'released' you. To even STAND on the dancefloor, you'd be
touching a minimum of three people on all sides of you at all times. I'd
seen the club pretty full before, but not like this.

The strange thing was, I could sense a huge attendance of 'real'
vampires there that night also. Five TIMES the amount of vampire
presences as I've ever felt in the club before. It's hard to explain,
but with all of them there together in one huddled mass, the humans
stuck out like a sore thumb. The normal men and women dancing, wearing
their goth makeup and their black leather get-ups...they were different.
VERY different. And I was almost worried that one of them were
going to end up as somebody's dinner if they weren't careful of who they
bumped into. Diva was right, it isn't hard to tell if you look closely
enough.

"JUSTIN!!! DUDE! Glad you could make it!" Gyro had evidently made his
rather predictable appearance at the party, and was already using what
was left of his coordination to fight off the liquor swimming in his
bloodstream. He had a blond vampire girl on his arm with huge silicone
breasts and only looked to have been 17 when she crossed over. Her eyes,
covered with white contacts, were glowing intensely under the lights and
she licked her lips as she smiled at me. "So you gonna dance or what???
C'mon!" Gyro shouted.

"I think I'm gonna get a drink first." I told him, and he immediately
started reaching into his 'lady's' pocket for some leftover cash.
She didn't resist, which meant that Gyro was using some of that
irresistable magic of his. I swear, that boy could charm the bark off of
a TREE if he smiled at it!

"Here! Get me one too! And TWO sunburn shots! One for my lady friend
here!" He basically tossed the money at me and went right back to
bouncing with the crowd. He never missed a beat. Our playful little
adrenaline junkie...you gotta love him.

I had to push forward to the bar, and it took so much work to get there
that I was in NO hurry to have to work my way back to Gyro with his
drinks. I'd rather drink them myself. "Your habits are beyond
predictable, you know that kid?" Came a voice from next to me at the
bar. I looked over to see Jeremy from the 'blood bank' sitting on the
stool, guzzling back a few drinks of his own. Naturally, I froze.

"Dion came to pay you! I SWEAR he did! We sent the money tonight! He
wanted to get it to you early and...."

Jeremy lazily put his hand up to stop me from babbling. "RELAX,
rookie. I got the payment." He said as he put the drink back down to the
bar. "You and me? We're squared away, so don't sweat it." My heart had
leapt up into my throat so fast that it was hard to swallow it back
down. Even after he assured my...um...'safety'. Still seeing the tension
in my eyes, he repeated, "I said RELAX, kid! Jesus, you're gonna blow my
buzz here." He leaned over to shove me a bit, and then ordered another
drink from the bar.

"Believe me...I'm trying to relax."

"Hey...you know it was just business, right? It's nothing against you
personally. But out here, you've gotta run a tight ship, or you get shut
down. And blood isn't necessarily the easiest commoddity to come across,
you know? If one of you runs over me, they all will. And some of them
aren't even a LITTLE bit as innocent as you are." The bartender gave
Jeremy his drink, and he took a sip before looking over at the extra
drink and two shots in front of me. "Taken to alcaholism, have we?"

"Huh? OH...no...these aren't for me."

"You gonna finish them?"

"Nah, go ahead." I said, pushing all three over in his direction. But
Jeremy pushed one of the sunburn shots back at me.

"I never do a shot alone." He said.

"When it comes to THAT shit...I never do a shot at ALL!"

"Come on, don't be a pussy. It'll put hair on your chest." He smiled.
"Of course, you'll lose it again overnight when you go back to the big
sleep, but for tonight, you'll feel pretty damn good." Then, he
physically took a hold of my hand and wrapped it around my shot glass.
Then, taking his to the air, he clinked the two of them together.
"Consider it my apology for last evening, kiddo. To business and
prosperity."

He raised the glass to his lips, and I was a bit shaken, but...what the
hell? Why not? It only stings for the first...ten or twenty minutes! I
raised the glass to my lips as well and we both threw our heads back to
accept the burning sensation of hard liquor into our systems. My eyes
clenched up tight enough for tears to squirt out to the sides, and my
face scrunched up its every muscle, as the bitter tang of the drink
began punching at my tonsils and every inch of me on the way down. I
couldn't breathe, I couldn't open up my eyes, I was in PAIN here!
Geez...how they could make a 'sunburn' shot even STRONGER than they did
the last time is beyond me! "Oh...oh...oh my GOD!!!" I gasped, fanning
my face feverishly.

"WOOOOO! Hot DAMN! That was a good one! Let's get another shot!"

"FUCK NO!!!"

"Hehehe, sissy!" Jeremy was actually enjoying being that 'hurt on the
inside'. Me, on the hand, was fidgeting in my seat as the drink moved
slowly through my intestnes like liquid lava. At that moment, two guys,
about age 18, approached Jeremy at the bar and tapped him on the
shoulder.

"You 'dealing' tonight, man?" The taller of the two asked.

"Tonight and every other. You got an order for me?" Jeremy put down his
drink and switched right over into 'blood business' mode. "What are
thirsty for?"

"We want something young, man. You got something in our age, fresh?" The
second one asked.

"I think I can work that out. Why don't you two come by my shack
tomorrow night and take a look at my selection. I'm sure I can find you
boys a satisfying meal for the right amount of money." I saw the boys
squirm a little, uncomfortably trying to fix their hands in a way where
they wouldn't look so awkward. And after a slight pause in silence,
Jeremy asked, "Is there more to discuss here, gentlemen?"

They looked at each other, and one of them came up with the bravery to
speak first. "Um...ahem...yeah, actually. There is." He stopped talking
while both Jeremy AND me waited for an answer. "Well...we wanted to know
if you could...you know...'specialize' it for us. You know?"

Jeremy's smile faded a bit, then disappeared completely. Still, he asked
anyway, "No...I DON'T know. Exactly what are you asking here?" But I
think he already knew...whatever it was.

It was then that the second boy said, "We wanted to know if you could
'spice' it up for us. Make it sing. We'll pay you extra. LOTS extra,
we've got the money..."

But Jeremy cut them off cold as he spun back around and returned to his
drink. "Later!"

"C'mon, I KNOW you've got some! Help us out. I told you we'll pay
extra."

"I don't deal in 'spice'. You know that."

The other one spoke up, hoping to be a better negotiator than his
friend, "I know Jeremy, I know. But we were thinking...you know...just
this one time. A little pizazz added, just between us...you get paid, we
get 'twisted'...everyboy is happy." Jeremy didn't say a word, his back
still turned up in their faces. The boy continued, "All the dealers are
doing it now..."

"I'M not doing it now! And I DON'T deal in 'SPICE'! You got it
slaghead?" Jeremy glanced angrily at them over his shoulder as he
shouted it out, and then took another healthy gulp of his drink.

They knew that they weren't going to get what they wanted from him,
so...in defeat, they asked, "Well..do you know another dealer that
DOES?"

"Yeah, sure I do. His name is 'Fuck You'...and he has a sidekick named
'Get The Hell Out Of My Face'. I think their phone number is written in
really small print on that wall waaaaay over there on the other side of
the fucking club! Why don't you go fetch it?" And with that, they got
the hint and walked away with a scoff. Jeremy didn't look shaken or
angry so much, but he wasn't wearing that grin that he had on his face a
second ago. He sat there silently, drinking away and ignoring me
entirely until I spoke to him.

"So...what was that all about?"

"They wanted 'Spice', I don't deal in 'Spice', I told them to fuck off.
Were you not paying attention?"

"What is spice?"

"Sighhh....rookies..." He put his drink down, and then looked over at me
to meet eyes again. "...'spice' is blood that's been altered to hold
narcotic elements in it for an extended length of time. Heroin, Cocaine,
Acid, whatever. You get some lab equipment, mix the elements together
with adrenaline packed blood samples, and a vampire can mantain a
powerful high for days, even weeks at a time. It spreads out to
your nervous system, affects your brain, and keeps you well intoxicated
for a very long period. They call it getting 'twisted'."

"It's like...a drug then?"

"It's SHIT! That's what it is. On top of everything else, it's fucking
illegal for us to be doing. And I don't need the Elders sending any
'visitors' to come see me, if you know what I mean. Take my advice kid,
stay away from that shit. It's no good for you. It makes you stupid. And
it stimulates bloodthirsty rages after a while if you're not careful.
Your mind shuts down and your instincts take over like nothing you've
ever seen. The next thing you know, you'll be out exposing your true
form in the middle of some 24 hour deli and THAT'S when the shit hits
the fan. You don't need that. *I* don't need that." He said.

"Sounds like a bad thing to get into." I replied.

"Ha! You think THAT'S bad? Just wait until that stuff makes your
heart stop beating and you're left to starve to death without any
working parts. I'm telling you, it's practically suicide."

"So vampires actually request this? To be high for that long?"

"It's an escape from the darkness, Justin. Half of us never really
adjust fully to the idea of it. And half of everyone that's left ends up
dying of some very 'unnatural' causes out here. It's a double edged
sword, kid. You get to finally appreciate the beauty of a life that
you're not a part of anymore...and become a part of a life where there's
hardly any beauty left to appreciate. Welcome to your crossover,
blondie." He took another sip of his drink and almost finished it
off.

"But they said other dealers do it. Is that...?"

"I'm not 'other dealers'." The last gulp went down his throat, and he
let out another frustrated sigh. "We dealers are going through...a bit
of a rough time right now. New technologies are coming, we may become
obsolete soon. So a lot of people in my profession are doing a lot of
truly underhanded shit in order to keep things running smoothly."

I saw Jeremy order yet another drink, with mine not even half empty. Not
that the sunburn shot had finished chewing on my liver just yet. I
wasn't quite sure what to say. There was still a lot I didn't know about
this new world, and it's taking much more time to learn it all than I
thought. Jeremy continued, after taking a sip of his newly refreshed
beverage. "I deal in blood, Justin. Dead blood. It was a great business
some years ago. Never went a single night without a clientele of loyal
customers and a pocket full of money. But...things are changing."

"Dead blood isn't selling anymore?"

"A little here, a little there. But these fucks from the west coast are
moving in and taking over everything. They got these new things called
'hemoslugs', and it's gonna put us ALL out of business once they perfect
it. It's LIVING blood, Justin. Food, an almost endless supply."

"How can they manage that?" I asked, more interested than ever,
considering my current position with hunting and all.

"There are habitats, Justin. Where human beings are being genetically
produced, grossly overfed, fattened up...one hemoslug could
provide you with a healthy blood supply for almost a year or more. You
suck out what you need, the slug 'painfully' lives through it, and by
the time it heals up and replinishes the blood it lost...you just drain
it again. The human is never taught to walk, or talk, or even understand
pain fully. It remains in the mindstate of a toddler until it is full
grown, and then it is sent off to be sucked dry until it can no longer
take the drain. The only thing left is for them to develop a powerful
growth hormone to make the slugs mature quickly enough to be marketable.
And yet, weak enough to not be a harm to us as a 'consumer'."

Was it conflict I felt? I can't really tell. Maybe it's a sense of
salvation that I felt inside. A year's worth of blood, from
one....'animal'. Just one. Much better than 12 lives a year. It would
keep me from wandering the streets at night, it would save me from the
screams, from the struggling, from the...the night when I took down that
innocent clerk and filled my belly with his life essence. All it would
take was the sacrifice of a few...humans. But, it's a FEW! Right? Not as
many as it would be without the technology. Maybe it's a good thing.
"M-m-maybe...it would help....not having to kill so often." I
suggested.

Jeremy shook his head. "Riiiight..." He finished his drink.
"Listen, kid. I know you're still pretty new to all of this, but let me
break this down for you as simply as I can. Our existence here, the
reason we're even allowed to 'live', if you can call it that, is based
heavily on our sense of diplomacy with the human race. The few
that know about us, and the vast majority that don't. If that balance
gets thrown out of whack, and we get exposed...we're talking a series of
unstoppable witch hunts the likes that you have never even imagined.
Forget what you saw in the movies, kid. When they're done with us, it'll
make the Holocaust look like a freakin' picnic. This 'technology' may
sound like a blessing to you...but just you wait until people
find out we're making livestock out of 'Buffy' and 'Brad'. That's
when the gloves come off." Jeremy turned to look at me with a half smirk
on his face. "There's three things mankind is good at, Justin. Hatred,
stupidity, and destruction. You combine all three? And...'Boom'." With
that he stood up from the bar and left some money for his tab. "Now, if
you don't mind...you're officially blowing my buzz. Have a nice night."
And he left to melt into the gyrating crowd around us. It was hard to
tell if he was worried more about 'mankind' or the loss of a rather
profitable business. But whatever it was, it bugged him. I guess this
'balance' of ours was even more fragile than I believed it to be. What
kind of massacre would it be...two intelligent species fighting to be at
the top of the food chain? I hope we never have to find out.

Then I felt it, inside I could sense it. Trevor was close, and he was
watching me. I didn't have to see him with my own eyes...his distinct
individual 'vibe' was present in the room near me. With just a tiny bit
of focus, I was able to mentally pull his existence out of a
crowd of hundreds, and pinpoint his exact location without even turning
around. There he is, bold as ever. Mentally, I could see him, every hair
on his head, every wrinkle in his clothes. And shortly after noticing
him, I felt a mental link reach out to him, as though we were the only
two in the room...and I was able to send him a message. "I thought I
told you to back off." I whispered to myself. And I know he heard me.
Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he heard me, and he came up to
the bar next to me.

"You caught me, blondie. Red handed. It seems that you're learning an
awful lot of new tricks these days." He said. "Suppose you teach me a
few?"

"I gave you my answer."

"I don't remember giving you question TO answer." He said. "You CAN'T
hide it, Justin. I know that you are supposedly good at keeping much of
your life a secret, but you can't just bury this where no one will find
it. It's too big." Trevor moved closer to me, "We already know that your
crossover is anything but normal, Justin. We've been living in darkness
for a long time now, and we have a pretty good idea of how things are
supposed to work. But you...you seem to be somewhat of a
phenomenon. You're keeping all kinds of nasty little secrets in that
pretty little head of yours. I'm only asking for one of them. You
can keep the rest to yourself, if you like."

"Why? Why do you want to know so bad?" I asked. "I thought Bryson didn't
LIKE readers. Wouldn't that exclude you too?"

"Let's just say I'll keep your secrets if you will keep mine." He
smiled. "Besides...once you tell me what I want to know, I'll be able to
venture out on my own. No more lot, no more sleeping in the backseat of
some rusted, broken down car, no more duct tape covering my windows so I
don't burn to death in the suns rays. Justin...we can LEAVE!" He told
me. "No more of this pick pocketing tourists for money bullshit. No more
chores, no more taking care of the core group with Bryson's rules and
regulations. We can be free of that place and travel the whole WORLD if
we wanted to. With the knowledge we gain from other vampires, we could
spend the next century adopting every vampire extra around us into
making us stronger, wiser, COMPLETE! We'd be untouchable."

Instead of answering him, I simply said, "At age 12, you learned how to
mastubate for the first time. You were in your room, and you were
thinking of a friend of your cousins when you did it. His name was
Sean." His thoughts were so open to me, so unbelievably open.

Trevor's smile faded almost instanty. "Your tricks are only going to
anger me, Justin. I don't think you want that."

"The only time you've ever kissed a girl was at a party in the 7th
grade. And you only did it to impress your friends." I said, ignoring
him and digging deeper.

"Fine..." He mumbled through grittd teeth. "Have your fun. Play your
little mind games if you want. But mock my words...I'll win this in the
end. I always do." With that, he got a few more drinks from the bar, and
vanished into the swarming crowd around us. There wasn't much more to
say to each other at the moment. But my instincts...my defenses...they
said otherwise. It was like having this burning sensation inside of you
at all times. This confidence that builds itself up without any effort
at all. I could put an end to his meddling. I could FEEL it. Battling
Trevor over this was much easier to me in my mind than it was before. It
was like the difference between fighting someone twice your size...and
swatting a fly. He was NOTHING in comparison. NOTHING! I had to struggle
a bit inside to keep my wits about me. But the question is...why? Why
play this game with him when I can teach him the much deserved 'lesson'
he's been asking for since the first night Taryn brought me to meet
everybody in the lot? I simply don't have to DO this anymore. If push
came to shove, I knew that I could push and shove a HELL of a lot harder
than he could. I mean, I just won money in an underground fighting arena
for crying outloud! My skills are so in tune with what's going on around
me that I don't even have to THINK about it anymore. It made me wonder
what else I'd be capable of in the nights to come. How incredibly
strong I could get. How fast, how agile, how smart...in time, I'd
be better than ALL of them!

"Looks like you're starting to like this place." I turned a saw Max
standing next to me at the bar. I hadn't even noticed that he had walked
over to me. And what struck me as even more odd was that he had chosen
tonight to be one of those rare occassions when he opted to come out and
actually spend time with the rest of us. It wsn't as common an
occurrence as you would think for someone living with a few select
people in the same abandoned car lot.

"Didn't expect to see YOU here anytime soon." I said.

"Likewise."

"I thought you didn't like this place a whole lot."

"I don't." He said, and ordered some drinks for himself. "I'm here for
Rain. She's having issues again. Let's just say that I'm keeping her out
of trouble. As much as inhumanly possible, anyway."

"I knew you were a softee deep down, Max."

"Don't flatter your sense of intuition, kid. When Rain is home with us
and safe, that makes Bryson happy. When Bryson's happy, he's a lot
easier on the rest of us. Nuff' said." He continued, "She doesn't want
to admit it, but I know why she's here."

"Why is that?"

"Her brother." He said, and he pointed out Gyro, who was bouncing around
on the dancefloor with his newfound lady friends. "She's looking out for
him pretty much the same way I'm looking out for her. They're getting to
that point where I know they'll start talking again.
Well...yelling at each other, anyway. But it DOES constitute a
conversation, just at a higher volume."

I thought about it a bit, and asked, "What happens then?"

"Well....they get to a point where they finally get along again. Then
Gyro will get homesick, leave, and go back to his buddies on the other
side of town..." Max took a gulp of his drink, "...and then they won't
have any contact for a long period of time until they're mad at each
other again and the whole cycle starts over. Crazy, isn't it?"

Suddenly, my arm was bumped and a drag queen dressed in some weird wig
and Colonial style clothing apologized for the mistake. Joining him were
two more, dressed almost exactly like him. They were wearing make-up to
make them look extremely pale, and they had drips of fake blood on their
lips and faces. Looking around the club surroundings, I noticed how much
harder the music was pumping than usual, how much harder people were
drinking and partying and stomping to every beat of high energy rave
music. More people dressed up as some kind of woman drenched in blood,
some with more attention to gore than others. What the hell was going on
with this club? When the drag queens left the bar, I turned to Max and
asked, "What the hell is going on in here tonight, anyway? I can hardly
MOVE in this place!"